Tolerance cannot be measured in terms of degrees of intolerance. I am essentially opposed to burning books even when they incite others to violence. But freedom is either an absolute or it is conditioned on not inciting others to violence. Anything else is rationalized bigotry.

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Friday, January 23, 2015

Bibi Netanyahu, Congress and Elections in 2015

President Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon by the end of
the decade was a monumental task that was truly visionary but in the twenty
first century few nations, not even the United States of America, appear to
be able to have an exceptional vision for the future. Nation states have become mired down by the
constant struggle to balance budgets and keep dissatisfaction from boiling
over. Long after the Second World War
ended the world had a few golden decades (that were not really so golden) when
the world seemed easy, exciting and our expectations were not so inflated as to
create too many opportunities for disappointment – plus of course the rest of
the world was still only partially open to us so that the misery others felt
was still too distant to affect our thinking.

Politics is nearly all about perception. It takes an exceptional political
climate to engender political enthusiasm for multi-term projects that bare a
great deal of risk with no instant benefit to sell them. And reaching for the stars was certainly one
of those dreams. Politics is about what is credible, what is believable. As a politician, Benjamin Netanyahu was a
great director of finance; as the leader of the nation his sacred duty was always
to unify the nation. Instead he has
played a cheap politicians trick to bring down the government only two years
after the last elections. With threats
to the state mounting, all the separate parties are once again emphasizing
their differences instead of showcasing the bonds that unify them.

If it had been necessary, a National Law should have been used as a
unifying force for the good of every citizen and to marginalize those groups
that are trying their best to compartmentalize the state, to tribalise it as a
means of bringing about the destruction of the state.

The National law could have been used to define the battle; instead it
became the battleground; or one of them at least.

Before Senator Obama became President an article by a well-known Chicago journalist argued
that Obama was first and foremost an African American and that his loyalty was again,
first and foremost, with “his people.” It was a near-sighted, politically
immature, facile and unpatriotic waste of print space. If the nations’ leader is not the leader of the
whole nation then he is unworthy of occupying the post. Special interest groups
have their own lobbyists – you do not elect a lobbyist to be the leader of the
nation.

When the previous elections were near, Bibi Netanyahu resided over
demonstrations of booing and catcalling – the crowds behaved like beasts –
celebrating the death of their (assassinated) rival, Yitzhak Rabin. The same incitement preceded Rabin’s political
murder. Bibi presided over both rallies.
Benjamin Netanyahu is a populist politician who somehow seems to convince
people, no matter how much he dumps on them, that he still has their best
interests at heart. He behaves as if
half the electorate is deserving of him as their savior while the other half
are weak idiots who deserve nothing but the nations’ contempt. When members of
his cabinet are appointed, if he cannot find a person (politician or otherwise)
who will stroke his inflated ego he will leave the post (s) unoccupied for the
entire parliament, or take them himself. Government administration is clearly
of no consequence to him. It is always about Bibi.

And yet, he has been voted into power three times (only Ben-Gurion
equals that record.) There is no other
politician able to compete with him.
Politics should be about policies, not personalities but given Benjamin
Netanyahu’s arrogant self-possession we should all have understood that Bibi cannot
be trusted as the leader of the nation.

After Likud Primaries were held, he once again was voted in as leader
of the party. This means that the Likud is
satisfied with his continued leadership of the party and the nation, despite
his divisive personality.

The people should deny the Likud their vote at the elections to be held
in March 2015 and cast their vote against any party that pledges to go into
coalition with him as Prime Minister. After
failed leadership, this is the next problem.
The parties are prostitutes – they will sleep with anyone willing to make
them their political bitches. The
opposition only exists because they cannot make a deal to share the spoils. And
those that are not ever offered a place at the trough are unlikely to have been
ever offered a place (such as the communists and the Arab anti-Zionist parties).

The
Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is rapidly gaining respectability
in universities throughout Europe and across
the globe.

Palestine will gain recognition which will only
encourage it to greater levels of irredentism.

The Arab
world owns the United Nations and will use its enormous financial resources and
human capital to further degrade the already diminished status of Israel and the Jewish
faith across the world.

Iran and Turkey will become increasingly
belligerent as their successes in the international political sphere grow (and
as their internal threats diminish). They are the only serious military threats
to Israel but both will be
encouraged to destabilize Israel’s
neighbors if they think there is the chance that it will not adversely impact
their own ongoing theocratic revolutions.

Israel’s financial success will deteriorate as the US moves away from its support for Israel, as the
boycott movement bites and as European belligerence accelerates. The corrupt contention that Israel will trade with anyone who pays will make
Israel’s
position increasingly precarious as unemployment rises and social services
fail. A politics of envy will lead to
violence that will not be brushed aside by the umpteenth national enquiry.

A flight
of capital will lead to increased emigration and a return to the “nebbish”
attitude that led to previous economic stagnation.

These are scenarios that Bibi the economist should understand if his
ego did not blind him to his own failures.

His greatest act of hubris is perhaps, still to come. It is the Achilles
heal of his ego. The invitation by the US House Speaker John Boehner (Republican)
to PM Netanyahu (he has been asked to speak to Congress about Iran) is a
Republican rebuke to the US (Democrat) President. The idea that an American president could be
usurped by the leader of the 153rd ‘largest’ country in the world (with the 96th
largest population) contains more than the usual stench of arrogance associated
with political prima donnas. To place
himself in between the elected president of the most powerful nation on earth
and that president’s political opposition is to allow him-self to be used by
both sides of the American political establishment in an unsavory internal political
act of one-upmanship which could seriously damage Israel’s reputation in the eyes of
ordinary Americans.

That Benjamin Netanyahu so eagerly agreed to this dubious honor is
shocking. Israel’s current dearth of
altruistic and meritorious national politicians is certainly something to moan
about. Leaders on the cusp of general
elections should stay at home; competent leaders focus on serving their electorate,
not someone else’s.

1 comment:

Given that Obama came to Queensland on invite from the Liberal government just before a state election, spoke out at the Govt. for it's environmental policy in a lecture at a university that went viral in the Australian media and then a month later the Liberal govt. in Queensland lost the election, I think Netanyahu addressing congress is fine.